We Are Many
by KrimsonFury2
Summary: Desperation can be your friend or enemy. Naruto takes the Forbidden Scroll after Mizuki tells him about the "make-up test" to pass by any means necessary. Not only does he learn the meaning of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but also found a small scroll with a message with a hidden power that belong to a man that was known as Ermac. NarutoxOC.
1. Chapter 1

**We Are Many**

 **Author's Note: Hello everybody KrimsonFury2 and here is a new story since everybody is enjoying Tremble Like The Earth, this time it takes place when Naruto takes the Forbidden Scroll after he fails the Graduation Exam and he learns the Shadow Clone Jutsu. NarutoxOC and he will not be super strong.**

 **Summary: Naruto fails the Graduation test and takes the Forbidden Scroll. Not only does he learn the Shadow Clone, but also found a small scroll with a message with a hidden power that belong to a man that was known as Ermac.**

 **Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto Or Mortal Kombat**

 **Chapter 1: By The Many Thousands**

Depression, anger, and sadness was the words that describe 13 year-old Uzumaki Naruto as he sat on the swing near the Academy. Depression as he failed the graduation exam yet again, anger that he couldn't do the clone jutsu whatsoever, and sadness that his dream of becoming Hokage was fading away.

But then Mizuki, his Academy teacher told him about an make-up test and the objective was to take the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage Tower and go to the forest and learn a jutsu from the Scroll.

Desperation then crypt to Naruto as he was willing to do anything to become a shinobi of Konohagakure No Sato. After he accepted the so called "make-up test", Naruto dashed off to get the scroll, not seeing Mizuki smirk in a sadistic way. 'Soon, I'll be able to kill the demon brat, take the scroll and leave this pathetic village, and gain the power that I deserve from Orochimaru-sama.' Mizuki thought laughing in evil glee.

"That was too easy, I can't believe no one was around the scroll, now I can learn a powerful jutsu and if I have time, look for something that make me unstoppable!" Naruto shouted in excitement and he was currently jumping through the trees with the Forbidden Scroll strap to his back.

He soon found a clearing and he sat to see what he can learn. Looking through the scroll he found the Shadow Clone Jutsu, knowing he had issues with the Clone Jutsu, Naruto decided to learn that first before moving to the next jutsu. "Whew! Finally got the Shadow Clone Jutsu down and after reading what it can do with memories, I can use them for more pranks." Naruto said after finishing practicing and mastering the Jutsu and soon look through the scroll some more.

As Naruto was looking through the scroll, he noticed a small green and red scroll drop on the ground. "Huh, wonder why this inside, it could be a powerful jutsu that can make me awesome and make me Hokage!" Naruto yelled and opened the small scroll, only to be disappointed that there was only a message written. "We Are Many, You Are But One? Is this some sick joke because I'm not laughing!" Naruto shouted in anger, but that soon turned to shock.

The small scroll started to shake and soon the message on the scroll was turning green and then thousands of green orbs shot up from the scroll, swirling in the air. Naruto was in awe and fear at what was happening in front of him and didn't know what to do.

Then the green orbs came towards the blond and enter his body to start merging with him. At first, Naruto felt weird like his body was going through a change and then he soon dropped to his knees, thrashing on the ground, and screamed as loud as he could to the point all of Konoha could hear him.

His hair started to grow longer to his shoulders and had green and red streaks intertine with his blond hair, the bones in his body started to break down and regrow making him taller than his classmate, Aburame Shino, then his eye color changed from sapphire blue to a pupiless eerie glowing green.

Then came the memories that didn't belong to him. Images were rushing to his head and it was as if it was a "past life" that happened long ago. Naruto felt his mind get sharper and grasp a intelligence that he lacked during his time in the Academy and skills with powers that he only had in his so called "past life" as a man that was known as Ermac.

Soon, the screaming stopped and Naruto was soon uncouncious on the ground from the excessive pain and the memories overload to his brain.

 **Near The Forest:**

Umino Iruka was in a panic when he found out his favorite student stole the Forbidden Scroll, but to him nothing added up and not to mention, Mizuki was the one to tell him of what Naruto did in the first place. Soon Iruka put the pieces together and knew Naruto got set up by Mizuki and was rushing to the forest to rescue Naruto from the traitor.

Iruka finally made it to the location and saw Naruto laying on the ground with clothes ripped from his new height and his body was glowing green everyonce in a while. 'Why is Naruto more taller than before and why is he glownig?' Iruka thought. Then he saw Naruto groaning and waking up, but what shocked him was when Naruto opened his eyes.

"Ugh, what happened to us?" Naruto said in many voices that didn't belong to him and sounded ghostly. "N-Naruto are you o-ok?" Iruka stuttered, still in shock. "Iruka-sensei, we're fine, but why are you here and not Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked. "Mizuki tricked you into stealing the Forbidden Scroll and was going to kill you and take the scroll for himself." Iruka explained. Naruto was in shock at the information and soon him and Iruka had to dodge some kunai and shuriken coming towards them at top speed.

"Well well well, what do we have here, Iruka and Naruto the demon brat." Mizuki said as he appeared with some giant shuriken. "Mizuki what is the meaning of this, why you betraying the village!?" Iruka yelled. "Isn't it obvious,I want power and as soon as kill both of you. I'll take the scroll to my master to obtain that power, Orochimaru-sama hahaha!" Mizuki laughed maniacially. Iruka and Naruto couldn't believe what they were hearing. 'We gotta stop him and fast.' Iruka thought. "Mizuki..." Naruto said in his ghostly voice. Mizuki was shocked when Naruto spoke, but then got a idea.

"Naruto, how would you like to know why your so hated in the village?" Mizuki said in sadistic glee. "NO!, It's forbidden Mizuki you know the consequences!" Iruka yelled. Naruto tilted his head to the side looking at Mizuki with his glowing green eyes, which honestly scared Mizuki to an extent. "Mizuki, we already know about the Kyubi and for breaking the law, you will perish!" Naruto spoke and his hand started to glow green and raised his hand and next thing Mizuki knew, he was lifted in the air.

"Let go of me you demon brat, or I'll kill you!" Mizuki yelled. Then Naruto did a hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled and hundreds of clones spawned all over the forest. "We Are Many." One clone spoke. "You Are But One." Another clone said. **"We will destroyed you!" All the clones yelled in unison.** Then the hundred of clones started beating the traitor into a bloody heap until he was nothing but broken bones and bruises all over his body.

Soon all of the clone disappeared and soon it was just Iruka and Naruto. "We may have went overboard Iruka." Naruto said with a sheepish smile. Shaking his head at his student for his antics and relief that Naruto was fine, Iruka told Naruto to come closer and close his eyes. "You can open your eyes now Naruto." Iruka said with a smile. Naruto opened his eyes and notice that Iruka didn't have his headband on and then touched his forehead to feel metal.

"Congrats Naruto, you finally became a shinobi of Konoha, I'm proud of you." Iruka said with pride. Naruto was speechless as he never experience this feeling of someone being proud of him before, even in his past life as Ermac, he never receive such warmth. Naruto felt tears come down his face and hugged Iruka with all his might.

 **Hokage Tower:**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, The Sandaime Hokage, a man who have fought, survived, and seen many things in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Shinobi wars that ravaged the Elemental Nations, but what he has just seen in his crystal ball was something he has never experience from his surrogate grandson. 'Naruto, what did you discover in that scroll?' The Hokage thought.

 **Author's Note: And that's Chapter 1 for the new story. Hopefully it's good. In a way, Naruto will start talking like Ermac did in the Mortal Kombat series and will have to get a grasp of Ermac's power, which will be explained in chapter 2. He has Ermac's memories and the souls that consumed his body. Now I'm going to start on chapter 3 for Drunken Maelstrom, which I should've done awhile ago, but been busy with stuff. So later everybody!**


	2. Chapter 2

**We Are Many**

 **Author's Note: Hey KrimsonFury2 is back and ready to go with chapter 2 of We Are Many. Also, I would like to announced that from now on, when Naruto speaks, it's going to be in bold lettering since we know how Ermac speaks and it would make sense. Let's begin the 2nd Chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto or Mortal Kombat.**

 **Chapter 2: Forgotten Memories, New Moves, & New Teams**

 **Flashback- (Naruto's Mindscape):**

Waking up in a very unknown territory, Naruto looked around wondering what happen and how he woke up inside a sewer. **'The last we remember was opening that scroll.' Naruto thought from his memory.** He got up from the water soaked ground and notice his surroundings. The pipes were glowing a red, blue, and green color running through the sewers and stare at the pipes in curiousity.

 **"Kit come here towards the cage, we have much to discuss." The Kyuubi spoke.** Naruto heard the deep voice and felt the evil and chaotic chakra rolling in waves as he walked towards the bars that were tall with the kanji for 'seal' and also saw the same green orbs from the scroll coming from the other side of the bars. Then emerge from the dark shadows of the cage the Nine Tailed Fox, The Kyuubi No Kitsune. **"Greetings kit and welcome to my humble abode. We need talk about some things regarding that scroll you opened and the power that came with it." The Kyuubi spoke in serious tone.** Naruto looked in awe and fear at the Nine Tailed Fox that was staring at him currently with seriousness and was also calm despite the chakra it had. **"At ease kit, I'm not going to hurt you." The Kyuubi said calmly.**

Naruto relaxed only a little, but was still nervous standing in front of the biju. **"What exactly do you want to discuss with us Kyuubi?" Naruto asked. "Well first off, Kyuubi is just a title, my real name is Kurama and the reason I want to talk is because I want to make a deal with you to make our lives easier, but in return, can you please change the scenery in here, it's a little depressing." Kurama explained and asked.** Naruto was utterly surprised, sure when he was Ermac in his past life he dealt with Shao Kahn, who was a very powerful individual in his own right, but his power is dwarf in comparison to Kurama's chakra.

 **"How do we change it?" Naruto asked. "Its your mind, use your imagination kit." Kurama answered with a smirk.** Naruto closed his eyes and imagined Edenia from his time as Ermac and Kurama was shock at the beauty of the new mindscape. **"Kit, how did you think of this? Its incredible." Kurama asked in awe. "It's from a past memory of our life when we was Ermac." Naruto said. "Well seeing as you changed the scenery kit, the deal I want to make is I'll help you with controlling the new power that came from the scroll since I've skim through the memories of your past life and I gotta say, the guy was somewhat disturbing, and that's coming from me." Kurama explained.**

 **"One question, why are you helping us? There has to be a reason." Naruto asked.** Kurama sighed as he knew he had to explained his reason and he didn't really minded and lay his head down staring at Naruto with a sad expression. **"To answer your question, I've seen what you go through in a daily basis and I know it gets hard when dealing with the villagers so this is my way of saying I'm sorry for how things been for you kit." Kurama explained.**

Naruto was shocked by that answer and expected the Kyuubi No Kitsune to be very malevolent and evil, but instead the fox was very sincere and calm throughout their conversation. Naruto smiled at Kurama for what he said. **"We have a deal and we accept your apology Kurama-san." Naruto told the fox, who had a smile his face.**

 **"We have another question, why did attacked Konoha 14 years ago?" Naruto asked. "That's... a question I'm not too comfortable answering kit, be patient and I'll tell you soon." Kurama said in a sad and solemn tone.** Naruto noticed the tone and didn't push the topic by just simply nodding and left his mindscape.

 **(Flashback Ends):**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was staring at his surrogate grandson as he explained how he met the Kyuubi and the events that accured with the scroll of Ermac. "So let me get this straight, You open this scroll." Hiruzen pointing at the scroll on his desk. "And it had a message saying 'We Are Many, You Are But One.' and you thought it was a sick joke until thousands of green orbs exploded from the scroll and went inside you, changing your eyes, making you taller and making your hair longer too, and giving the memories and powers of a man from your "past life" known as Ermac and not only that, you made a deal with the Kyuubi No Kitsune after it felt bad for what's happen in your life. Did I get all that right?" The Third Hokage asked.

 **"That's most of it yes." Naruto nodded.** The Third Hokage simply rubbed his temples from the migraine that was coming too fast for him. "I'm seriously getting too old for this shit." Hiruzen signed. "Um Hokage-sama, Naruto looks like he needs some new clothing due to the growth spurt." Iruka informed the Hokage. Hiruzen looked at Naruto and had to agree with Iruka, Naruto looked worse for wear. So he simple went through his draw and gave a scroll with some clothing and other equipment to Naruto as well as an envelope with money for a B-Ranked mission for the success with capturing the traitor Mizuki.

 **"We'll see you tomorrow Old Man." Naruto said.** "Before you leave Naruto-kun, make sure to go to the Academy for team assignments." Hiruzen said and Naruto nodded and left to to head home. When he got to his apartment, he took off his old ripped up jumpsuit for the last time and threw it away along with the other jumpsuits he owned since they can't fit him anymore. He also made some clones and told them to go find any training grounds and train using Ermac's moves from the memories and meditate as well. After that, he got his nightcap and put on a black shirt and was in his boxers and went to bed to get some sleep and start his new life and career. **'Everybody will be in for a surprised when they see us.' Naruto thought before sleep consume him.**

 **(The Next Day):**

'Beep..., Beep..., Beep... **SMASH!'** Naruto lifted the alarm clock using his new powers and threw against the wall, smashing it into pieces. Naruto groan and proceeded to walk to the bathroom and shower. After the shower, he look at the mirror and notice his new look. **"We at least grew taller." Naruto said to himself and exit out the bathroom to get dressed.** Naruto remembered the scroll the Hokage gave him and put some chakra into it and pop out various items.

Clothes, kunai, shuriken, senbon, bandages, etc. and he liked what he saw with the clothes, far better than his old jumpsuits. He remember the memories of what Ermac wore and somewhat like what he saw. So he started grabbing the black bandages and wrapping them around his face stopping at his nose,letting most of them hang loosely and remove the blue fabric of his headband off the metal and use a long piece of black fabric as a replacement, stitching the metal plate onto the fabric, and tying it around his forehead.

Then, he got dressed in a short sleeve black shirt and dark burgundy no sleeve jacket with a hood attached with black cargo pants with navy ninja sandals and pouches strapped to his left leg filled with kunai, shuriken, and senbon. He wrapped bandages around his pant legs and he wrapped black and red bandages around his hands up to his forearms and like his face, let them hang loosely. He looked himself in the mirror and grinned beneath the bandages as his eyes started to glow. **"Perfect, time to head to the Academy." Naruto said to himself.** Before opening the door, he got memories from his clones dispelling and was surprised at the slow process they managed to get to.

He was able to levitate and he can use the Telekinetic Slam like Ermac once did to his opponents and fire green orbs of his soul energy to trap his enemy. Deciding to go over everything later, Naruto opened and locked the door and started hopping on the roofs towards the Academy and was enjoying the wind blowing through his wild long hair as he couldn't wait to arrive. **'We wonder what's everyone reaction will be when they see us.' Naruto thought as he finally arrived.** Naruto levitated through the hallways until he reached his destination and opened the door.

He was really liking this levatating thing!

Everyone that was talking or yelling inside the classroom was in silence once the door opened and came this person who had spikey long blond hair with red streaks, a short sleeve black shirt with a un-zipped no sleeve burgundy jacket with a hoodie, black cargo pants and pouches strapped to his left leg, black bandages over his face loosely and black and red bandages over his hands up to his forearms, that also hanged loosely with a long black headband and black sandals. But what was the most mysterious of this individual was his pupiless glowing green eyes along with the floating green orbs going around his body.

Also he was floating off the ground for Kami's sake!

"Who are you and are you in the right class, this for graduates?" Kiba asked not recognizing Naruto at all. Naruto turned towards Kiba and stared at him with a unreadable expression. **"You don't remember us Kiba, we're quite hurt." Naruto spoked in mock hurt and disturb everyone in the classrom on how his voice sounded so ghostly.** Naruto decided to pull his bandages down to show his whiskers and the foxy smirk on his face and now everyone knew who it was.

"NARUTO!?" What are you doing here, these are for graduates only!" Sakura shouted. Naruto simply turn his head and stared at the pink-haired girl with a deadpanned face. **"We have a headband and that means we graduated." Naruto said pointing at his headband.** "But you failed, you can't do any clones dobe and what do you mean 'we'." Sasuke said with a arrogant smirk. Raising his eyebrow, Naruto did the Shadow Clone Jutsu and two clones popped into existence. **"Did this answer your question?" Naruto and his clones said at the same time.** Sasuke then scowled and was wondering how the dead-last learn that jutsu, but also was a little furious about Naruto's new found abilities.

Iruka entered into the class and waved at Naruto, who said a simple hello and floated to his seat next to Hinata, who he had smiled to saying hello and she smiled back with a quiet hello and was curious about his new abilities.

 **(Earlier In The Hokage Tower):**

Most of the Jonin that volunteer to be senseis were inside and watching what was happening in the classroom. "So that's Uzumaki Naruto, he certainly changed in a big way." Hatake Kakashi said. "And his new powers came from the Forbidden Scroll last night, which I didn't know about until he explain it to me." The Third explained. Yuhi Kurenai was watching the crystal ball and was completely intrigue by the mystery that was Naruto and wouldn't mind having him as a student.

"Hokage-sama, I would like to have Uzumaki Naruto on my team along with Aburame Shino and Hyuga Hinata." Kurenai requested. Everyone stared at the kunoichi and was wondering why she wanted the dead-last on her team. "To me, Naruto would be a valuble asset on the recon team while using his green orbs and from what you told me Hokage-sama, he has Shadow Clones too, which can transfer the information back to the user. and I understand that Kiba can track along with his dog and has a very good taijutsu from his clan, but Naruto has a variety of things that I can use along with Hinata and Shino." Kurenai explained.

Everyone was very surprise by the explaination and breakdown that the kunoichi had said and she made perfect sense. Naruto could do more with his shadow clones from them transfering the information and with this unknown power that he came across from the Forbidden Scroll, that ain't no telling what he's capable of.

Hiruzen stroke his beard for some time before making a decision. "You make a very good Kurenai and I will agree with your request, Uzumaki Naruto, Aburame Shino, and Hyuga Hinata will be Team 8, while Inuzuka Kiba will be with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura as Team 7, do you agree with this Kakashi, cause I know you wanted Naruto?" Hiruzen said.

"True, I wanted Naruto for personal reasons, but I don't have a problem with your decision and Kurenai made a valid point. With Kiba and his pup, I could also use my dog summons as a combination that could help a lot for the team." Kakashi said.

Kurenai smiled at her request and couldn't wait to meet his students. 'This is going to be interesting to see especially when Kurenai just became a Jonin not to long ago.' The Sandaime thought.

 **(Back In The Classroom):**

Umino Iruka was wondering if he should get Naruto some ramen due to how quiet the classroom was since everyone was staring completely at Naruto, who was still as a statue with his eyes closed, meditating, and floating at the same time instead of bouncing around like a little kid on a sugar high announcing his love for Sakura or glaring at Sasuke.

'And I didn't have to use my **Big Head Jutsu** for the class.' Iruka thought.

Iruka cleared his throat and began to announce the teams. "Congratuations to all that are here today. As of today, you are no longer my students, but you are now shinobi and kunoichi of Konohagakure. Make me proud and show everyone that you are all capable ninja. Now I will announce the teams right now. but before that, are there any questions?" Iruka asked.

Iruka held the urge to facepalm when he saw everyone's hand come up except for Naruto, Hinata, Shino, and Shikamaru, who had his head down sleeping and Iruka pointed to Sakura. "What happen to Mizuki-sensei?" Sakura asked. "He was seen as a traitor trying to sabotage and tricking one of the students into stealing the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage Tower." Iruka explained. One of the students ask who was the student and Naruto spoke out and pointed at himself. **"It was us, but he learned the hard way when he was left beaten in a pool of his own blood." Naruto chuckled darkly.** Everyone was more creep out by Naruto when said those words and the way he laughed.

"Okay moving on, I will begin announcing the teams. Team 1..." Iruka said as he annouced the teams for everyone. "Team 7, Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba, and Haruno Sakura, your sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Team 8, Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto, your sensei is Yuhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in circulation and lastly Team 10 is Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji, and Nara Shikamaru, your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka annouced.

Hinata wanted to jump out of her desk in joy and hug her crush, but refrain from doing so and simply blushed and poked her fingers together. 'I'm on a team with Shino-kun!' Hinata thought happily. **(AN: I think having Hinata liking Shino could be cool and have her see Naruto as a brother like figure.)** Shino was quiet and observing his new teammates, especially Naruto. Since coming to the Academy, Shino would observe and calculate his classmates and coming to logical conclusions about them. When he first made a observation on Naruto, he thought Naruto was immature and at times acted illogical, but now he had to change his original observation in seeing Naruto right now. 'Hmm, this could be quite interesting and my bugs felt something about Naruto's new power.' Shino thought.

Naruto looked at his new teammates in curiousity and spoke. **"We hope to succeed as a team and become more than teammates, but also comrades and friends." Naruto smiled from underneath his bandages.** Shino looked back at Naruto as he adjusted his glasses. "I agree with your statement Naruto-san and my hive agree with your words as well, they believe it's logical that our team will work hard in our success." Shino said and Hinata nodded. "I-I think we c-can do a lot o-of good t-things and t-train to our b-best." Hinata stuttered with a blush from her two teammates staring at her.

The boys both nodded and then Naruto turn to see Sasuke in his face. Blinking, Naruto was looking at Sasuke confused. **"Can we help you with something Sasuke?" Naruto asked.** Sasuke stared at Naruto for a few minutes until he snorted and left to sit with Team 7. Kiba looked at Naruto, shrugged, and had a look that said 'I don't why he did that.'

Naruto just nodded at Kiba and waited for his new sensei to come. Soon all the senseis came and got their teams. Kurenai told her team to meet her at Training Ground 8 in 10 minutes. Only Team 7 was left waiting for their sensei.

They made it to the training ground to see their sensei drinking a cup of tea and smiled at them. "Hello everyone, my name is Yuhi Kurenai and I'm going to be your sensei. I would like for introductions, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams." Kurenai explained and then pointed to Naruto, who nodded and decided to remove his bandages from his face. **"Our name is Uzumaki Naruto. We like our new powers, meditating, ramen, and our new teammates, our dislikes are arrogant people and traitors, our hobbies are meditating, pranking, and sitting on the Hokage Monument to see the sunset. Our dreams is to one day become Hokage and become a successful with you all." Naruto spoke.**

Kurenai smiled at her student's words and very impress with his dreams. She then pointed at Shino to start. "My name is Aburame Shino. My likes are discovering new bugs, spending time with my clan, and dango, my dislikes are people who kill bugs, arrogant people like Naruto-san said, and people that look down on others, my hobbies are studying new bugs and my dream is to become the clan head of my clan." Shino said. Kurenai nodded and then pointed to Hinata with a smile.

"M-my name i-is Hyuga H-Hinata and my likes a-are a c-certain someone." Hinata stuttered with a blush thinking about Shino. "I a-also like t-to c-cook for m-my family and m-my s-sister Hanabi, my d-dislike is t-the Cage Bird Seal a-and judgemental p-people, my h-hobbies are p-pressing flowers, and m-my dream is t-to eliminate the Cage Bird Seal and u-unite my clan." Hinata finished.

Kurenai was happy with the introductions and looked at her new students. She had many things planned for them to be the most successful team in Konoha. "Well my students, normally we would take a test to determine if you three can function as a team, but we are going to skip the test aand become Team 8 entirely and we'll get our first mission tomorrow, but first we'll start some light training." Kurenai said. Naruto, Shino, and Hinata were glad to become a team and now were ready for some action.

 **Author's Note: Wow! One of the longest chapters I've done in quite some time and happy how it came out. The next chapter will have a appearance from Ermac himself on the origins of why the souls were seal in the scroll in a council meeting and also the training of Team 8. Also I just came up with a new story that involves Naruto and one of my favorite video games. Here's a hint, it has car combat in it. Later everbody!**


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